Review: Tempest by Beverly Jenkins

Favorite Quote:“A man prefers his wife to be virgin.”
“I know that but men can visit women like my mother, and have mistresses with no repercussions from society. I’m not a whore, Dr. Lee. I don’t plan to have relations outside my marriage, and I don’t expect my husband to seek solace with someone else either.”
“So, you’ll accept my needs in the marriage bed without complaint?”
“As long as you extend me the same courtesy.”
“Good women don’t have needs.”
She scoffed, “And you call yourself a doctor. Let’s get to Spring’s before it’s full dark, shall we?”

The first time mail-order bride Regan Carmichael sees her husband, she shoots him. It was an accident and luckily Colton was just fine. Regan moves to Wyoming to marry Dr. Colton Lee, who lost his wife when she was giving birth to their daughter. With the help of his extended family, he has been raising Anna on his own.

This is book three in Jenkins’ Old West series. I listened to Forbidden, book one, last year and have not read book two. I think this would stand alone well, but I enjoyed book one, and it does help gives reference to the overall story. From the moment we meet Regan we know she is a force to be reckoned with. She is smart, educated, beautiful, independent, and wealthy. At times, she was a little too perfect, but that didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Colton doesn’t exactly know what to do with Regan when she first comes to town. His first wife was quiet and demure, the opposite of Regan. But Colton does want his daughter to have a mother and a strong, but kind woman to help raise her. Colton needed someone like Regan to shake up his life, to help him see outside of the box that he built around his life. It was a lot of fun to watch Regan challenge Colton and he fall for her and their match go from one of convenience to a love match. They had some pretty steamy sex too.

There is a bit of suspenseful conflict as not everyone in town is happy about Regan’s arrival and they have to figure out who in town is causing trouble for Regan and her new family. I could have done without this, but understand why it was there.

As I believe is typical in Jenkins’ historicals, there is some real-life history woven into the story. This story had Colt helping out in the aftermath of the Rock Springs Massacre. Additionally, we learn about the process of Colt becoming a doctor, which was quite an accomplishment for a man of color in the 1880’s.

Overall this was a solid read, it was entertaining, educational, but not too much. I was invested in Regan and Colt’s story and wanted to see them succeed. Anna was not a plot moppet and enjoyed her and Regan’s story as well. If you’ve read either of the previous two books, you get to revisit those characters. I don’t read historical very often but I enjoyed this and would read more in or around this time period.